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On the Cover

May-June 2013
Volume 100, Number 3

The peacock spider (Maratus volans) is a tiny jumping spider native to eastern Australia, deriving its name from the brightly colored flaps on the male’s abdomen that it extends in a fan-like shape during courtship...


FEATURE ARTICLES

Alzheimer’s Disease: The Great Morbidity of the 21st Century *

Charles T. Ambrose

Neuroangiogenesis provides a basis for understanding dementias of aging


Rapid Evolution in Eggs and Sperm *

Katrina G. Claw

Sperm and eggs are ubiquitous and diverse. What drives them to diverge?


An Acoustic Arms Race

William E. Conner

Bats and sea mammals hunt with sound, but prey use similar tools to evade them


Wild Plants to the Rescue

David Van Tassel, Lee DeHaan

Breeding perennial grains could improve food security and soil health


* access restricted to members and subscribers


SCIENTISTS’ BOOKSHELF

When the World Went Digital

Fenella Saunders

A review of Turing’s Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe, by George Dyson

See all book reviews for this issue


DEPARTMENTS

FROM THE EDITOR

Going Mobile

Things are looking tablet rasa

David Schoonmaker

MACROSCOPE

To Throw Away Data: Plagiarism as a Statistical Crime

Whether data are numerical or narrative, removing them from their context represents an act of plagiarism

Andrew Gelman and Thomas Basbøll

ENGINEERING

Tappan Zee Bridge*

Like so many bridges in the United States, this one has exceeded its planned life span

Henry Petroski

COMPUTING SCIENCE

Crinkly Curves

Some curves are so convoluted they wiggle free of the one-dimensional world and fill up space

Brian Hayes

MARGINALIA

Why Does Nature Form Exoplanets Easily?

The ubiquity of worlds beyond our Solar System confounds us

Kevin Heng

POETRY

Summer Mountain Lightning & Some Music

Brenda Hillman

EARTH ART

Storm King “Running” Wall

Some Earth art uses natural materials while still showcasing the artist

Robert Louis Chianese

SIGHTINGS

See How They Grow

Nearly nondistorting fluorescent tags can capture growth patterns in bacterial cell walls

Catherine Clabby

SCIENCE OBSERVER

Probiotics for Frogs

Healthy bacteria may be the cure to amphibian decline worldwide

Katie L. Burke

Tying Water into Knots

A single ring is easy—how about a chain or a trefoil?

Fenella Saunders

In the News

LETTERS TO THE EDITORS

Chance Readings

Sticky Subjects

The Monkey Writer Gang

It’s All Greek to Me

SIGMA XI TODAY (PDF)


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